BOSTON (WHDH) - Hundreds gathered at City Hall Plaza before marching to Boston Police Headquarters on Sunday in a peaceful protest against police brutality and systemic racism.
At the plaza, speakers described how protests have spread around the world because of the leadership of black Americans.
“The rebellion is a popular rebellion, but we must know it is led by the black youth and black working class of this country,” one speaker said.
Demonstrator Olivia Martin said she has been calling for change for the past several decades.
“I’ve been doing this since the ’50s and ’60s,” she said. “Equality starts with politics.”
Protesters marched toward the police headquarters, where they took a knee in silence for nearly nine minutes — the same amount of time a former Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee onto George Floyd’s neck as he said, “I can’t breathe.”
Demonstrator Hanley Callahan recalled the moment of silence as powerful.
“That was really intense,” she said. “I feel like you could feel that everyone was kind of sharing in some kind of collective peace and collective energy.”
Sunday’s event was overall peaceful but Northeastern police tweeted out a video showing one man lighting an American flag on fire. Officers quickly extinguished it and police say protesters told that person to leave.
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